This invention relates to a tape recorder and reproducer machine including a rotatable head drum carrying a plurality of heads for recording a signal onto a cassette-type magnetic tape and for reproducing the signal recorded on a cassette-type magnetic tape.
In video or digital audio tape recorder and reproducer machines, a length of magnetic tape is transported pass a rotatable head drum. The magnetic tape is housed in a cassette from which a portion of the magnetic tape is transported around the drum in skewed fashion so that the magnetic tape is in close proximity with just over 180.degree. of the drum circumference. The skew of the magnetic tape is such that as the drum rotates, the heads affixed to the drum will traverse the width of the magnetic tape defining paths or tracks which cross the magnetic tape at an acute angle with respect to the length of the magnetic tape. For the purpose of such tape loading, it is the current practice to place the tape cassette in a cassette chamber defined in front of the head drum. In order to reduce the size of the tape recorder and reproducer machine, the cassette chamber must be positioned as closed to the head drum as possible. When the cassette chamber is positioned at a short distance from the head drum, however, the head drum can be damaged by the tape cassette placed into or discharged from the cassette chamber. It may be considered to use a cassette carrier to place the tape cassette into the cassette chamber and discharge it from the cassette chamber. However, the cassette carrier requires a complex mechanism and a space therefor, resulting in a complex, expensive and space consuming tape recorder and reproducer machine.